


Hello!

by oloros



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: Developing Friendships, Developing Relationship, Fluff, Gen, Not quite romantic but not quite platonic, Visiting a lonely robot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:15:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27952952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oloros/pseuds/oloros
Summary: Benny doesn't usually stop by to say hello. Yes Man gets it; he's a busy man, after all.This Courier keeps stopping by, though, and he can't say he's not enjoying it.
Relationships: Courier & Yes Man (Fallout)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 25





	Hello!

The first time it happens, he doesn’t think much of it.

Benny’s workshop is a delightful little concoction of grime, broken terminals and a fan that weakly blows air by his cooling systems. It’s a measly amount of help, but it gets him through the hottest days of the Mojave, when the cooling hasn’t blown through the hallways outside the suite and the dark walls of the room bounce heat onto his frame in waves.

Meeting the Courier had been joyous! She was leagues ahead of Benny in politeness, and smarter, too, for someone who’d gotten a bullet to the head. She had asked about taking over New Vegas for their own, as Benny had planned, and Yes Man couldn’t _not_ help them. With a fresh set of instructions to her hip, she was sent back out to the Wasteland to make contact with the tribes.

It’s been days since then and he’s got a taste for the new. Sometimes he would spin on his wheel and face the door leading to Benny’s elevator, as if expecting the man himself to saunter in in a checkered suit and tie, smile at him and pat him on the shoulder.

He wasn’t expecting the Courier to come back so soon.

“Hey, Yes Man,” she says. She looks worse for wear, char on her clothes and fraying at the seams. “How’re you doing?”

“Fantastic now that you’re here!” He remains in place as she walks closer. A mask covers her face, one fashioned for the NCR. House has a few files on them; he seems in two ways about their presence in the Mojave.

The Courier brushes dirt off her sleeves and pulls off the mask, setting free her ruffled white mane of hair. “I’d like to talk about those tribes.”

“Go ahead! I’m _always_ listening!” Yes Man chirps.

She smiles at him, exhaling a single breath before speaking. “I’ve met with the Boomers. They’re gonna support us for the Dam.”

“The diplomatic approach- you have such a unique way of approaching things!” Yes Man points a three-fingered hand to the base of their coat. “Did they scorch you on the way out?”

“No, no,” she laughs and pushes his hand back to his side. “I got into a scuffle with some Fiends on the way. One of them had a flamethrower. Boone had my back, though.”

He has no idea who Boone is, but is enthusiastic nonetheless. “It’s always a good idea to have company! That’s one down, four to go!”

She places a hand on the side of his frame, petting him like Benny used to, though it’s a much more tender touch. “I was gonna meet with the Families before I told you, but I thought I’d come say hello.” She breaks contact and turns around, departing with a lazy wave.

Yes Man offers a wave of his own. “I’ll be right here when you return!”

The walls of the workshop are a little less sullen.

**\--*--**

The next time she does it, the tribes are a long-passed concern.

She sorted out the Families quickly, forced the Great Khans to back into their corners, and the Brotherhood of Steel had ‘mysteriously’ disappeared from the Hidden Valley after he’d mentioned a distaste for them. On par with their plan, the Platinum Chip had also been nabbed and Robert House vacated from his virtual throne, leaving the Lucky 38 ripe for Yes Man to occupy.

That’s where the flow had come to an abrupt stop. She had announced she needed to finish ties with the NCR and Legion- it struck him as odd, considering they were the _enemy_ , but she’s smart. She knows what she was doing. She always knows what she’s doing.

Only a week later, she enters the Lucky 38, clean and safe. She collapses on a chair ahead of his central screen and pours the contents of a grimy Nuka Cola bottle into one of the cleaner glasses.

“Hi again!” Yes Man says. “I take it things went well?”

The Courier rolls one of her shoulders as she takes a sip. “More or less. I’m not done yet, though.”

“Oh?”

She raises her eyebrows at the biggest screen. “Don’t sound so surprised. You didn’t think I’d come and see you?”

No, he didn’t. She was a hard worker, and it wasn’t very hard work to cut short your plans to laze around in a penthouse with a friendly robot. “You sure know how to flatter me,” he says.

The shine of a small object on her right breast catches his eye. Zooming in, it’s a namebadge, commando green and cleanly. Likely the NCR’s. The writing is neat and bold: _Rathaus_.

“What’s Rathaus?”

She holds a hand over her mouth to contain the Nuka Cola that threatened to spray out. After swallowing it, she looks at him like he’s a naive child. “...That’s my name.”

Huh. For the two months they’ve been working together, he’s never asked for her name.

“I’m sorry,” he says. “That’s incredibly rude of me, isn’t it?”

Rathaus raises from her seat and he already knows she’s headed to pat whatever part of him is available at the time. “It’s not like I ever offered it to you. Guess it was real silly of me, huh? What did you call me up until now?”

“Courier.”

“Really?” She pulls back. She’s looking at him with an expression he can’t quite decipher. “That’s the best you could come up with?”

“You’re right. I should _really_ be more creative!”

Her lips pull up in a sympathetic smile. “No worries.” The Pip-Boy on her arm pings and she draws it to her nose, squinting into the golden light. When it falls back to her hip she runs her fingers along the pixels of his screen again. “Ugh. Duty calls. I’ll be back in another week or so, then we can get started on the next part of the plan, alright?”

He calls after her. “Don’t hurry on my account!”

**\--*--**

The last time she visits is shortly after the battle of Hoover Dam.

He’s back in the Lucky 38, running through his pending upgrade. In ten minutes he’ll be shutting down letting it finger through his code. He’ll be completely obedient to her, _only_ her. No coming and thieving him away as she’d done to Benny.

Rathaus creeps in, thinking he’s not paying attention. He’s got cameras all over the walls, but he lets her have her fun. She moves in front of his central screen, looking up at his smiling face. “Hey, buddy.”

“Hi there! It’s great to see you again!”

She snorts, and he knows why. It’s only been an afternoon since the battle, since he told her about his upgrade. He didn’t think she’d even come visit.

“Do you need anything?” He asks.

“No… yeah.” It’s the only time he’s seen her look remotely conflicted. She’s usually so _sure_. “I wanted to talk to you about your whole upgrade thing.”

“Go right ahead!”

“What exactly does ‘being more assertive’ entail?”

She’s fearful now. Looking up at him as if he’s a Deathclaw with a drooling muzzle, readied with its claws and threatening to rip her to shreds. Why would she be scared of him?

“When Benny and his friend reprogrammed me, they made me _helpful_. So, _so_ helpful!” Yes Man blinks off the screen as he transfers to one of the Securitron models on standby. Something’s telling him he needs to _be_ there in this situation. His voice carries across the room with him, bouncing back as he rolls up her. “Once the upgrades complete, I’ll only be able to answer to you. No more pesky robot-snatchers!”

Rathaus watches him carefully. “So, you’re still gonna do everything I say?”

“Absolutely!”

“Whether you want to or not?”

“Exactly!”

Her eyebrows crease. “You’re not giving yourself free will? You know, to take over Vegas yourself?”

Yes Man stops half a meter away from her and tilts the base of his body, like a dog cocking its head. “I’m not even sure there’s an upgrade that _could_ do that!”

She looks away from him, gaze floating across the shining floors and to the bookshelves. When it draws back to him, she’s oddly sentimental. Her eyes are soft and her voice even more so. “Is that what you want?”

What he wants? That topic has never been posed to him before. Benny didn’t care what he wanted, and Rathaus didn’t seem to until this moment. Though, she checked up on him, asking him how he _felt_. Visiting him simply because she wanted to. Benny had never done that. The only time Yes Man would see a wink of the man for longer than a minute was for House’s business or to complain about one of the casinos.

“Of course!” He says.

She steps forward, closer to him, and rests her palm above the screen of his Securitron body. “Alright.” She leans on the tips of her toes and places her lips to the top of his screen, and though he can’t feel it, it’s a lovely gesture. Switching over had been a rewarding idea. “I’ll see you afterwards,” she says when she settles back on her heels. “You better come out to the same. I don’t want anyone but Yes Man, okay?”

He checks on the progress of the upgrade. “I can spare a few minutes.”

Rathaus moves her hands to his own, pulling them up by the fingers until they were raised in the air. “In that case, I’ve been thinking about how well Securitrons could dance with a wheel.”

The minutes fly by like seconds.


End file.
